Why the Next Gen will be another Golden Age of Gaming

Finally, the strength of indie is only going to grow. Last generation was only the start of what we’re going to end up seeing come out of the indie scene.

Indie gaming’s best trump card is the fact that it’s more directly connected to the gamers. More willing to take direct feedback from the very people that are going to be buying their games. More willing to take chances. More willing to reach out and say, “Hey, I want to make this game, but I need help from you guys to get it done. Give me money!” If they get money, clearly there is a market for their product. It’s working extremely well.

This is allowing for real gamer’s games. Stuff the big guys aren’t willing, or are too stupid, to delve into any more. Stuff that, while certainly not pushing the technological limits of gaming, is certainly pushing what we are perceiving gaming to be.

“Call of Duty” didn’t change the market, it just made its own. This will be the generation where many publishers see this and stop trying to achieve the same level of success. With that, we’ll see a flood of amazing new content.

Small budgets can be an absolutely wonderful thing. It FORCES you to be more creative to make things work. When given limitations, they’re able to come up with stuff that doesn’t conform to what’s considered normal. It’s the difference between a chef that has access to every ingredient he wants and a chef that has only a few on hand. The chef with fewer ingredients is going to have think a lot more and do some things different. That’s how you grow and change things.

Plus, a lot of these indie developers grew up playing the exact same games we did during the 16-bit days. These are the games that have inspired them and led them to create games themselves. They want to have the same impact on people that those games had on them. This generation is going to allow them to reach even more people and that’s going to be a really good thing. Not only for the games they’re going to make, but for the potential impact it might have on the big guys.

Hey, the AAA guys might see some of the error in their ways… maybe.

I’m obviously very optimistic, but there has been a decrease in generic shooters, while RPGs and horror games are starting to see a bit of a resurgence. This tells me that things are gently starting to sway back into the favor of real gamers. More games are coming out with sensible budgets that recognize their audience and know how much potential profit is available, rather than companies blowing $200 million and reaching for the stars… by standing on a stool.

Once everyone realizes that there can only be one “Call of Duty”, they can let that franchise do its thing and then do their own. I think some people are starting to learn this lesson: “Call of Duty” didn’t change the market, it just made its own. This will be the generation where many publishers see this and stop trying to achieve the same level of success. With that, we’ll see a flood of amazing new content. I’m confident we’re going to see it happen and I’m excited for the future.

While his business cards may say "A/V Technician", Tyler Johnson has been an avid gamer/collector for 27 years and has no intention of ever stopping. When not gaming, he fancies himself a pretty good cook, a self-appointed beer snob, and a person of general awesomeness.

Discussion (4)

3 pages and not a single mention of the 900 lb. gorilla in the room : PC. Steam’s making the moves they need to to hang with the “next gen” consoles in the living room, and my PC has been capable of destroying “next gen” capabilities for over three years now. Factor in the cost of games, and Oculus Rift support, and the Steam controller, and we have a recipe for Steam to be competetive, if not come out on top.

At the very least, it deserved a mention. I think you might be surprised at what 2014 brings for gamers.

I fully understand that I left PC gaming out of the picture, but there is a very good reason for that.

PC gaming has ALWAYS been in the picture and it has always been more technologically advanced than consoles. That will never change. However, PC gaming operates in the background of the game industry, reserved for folks that are more tech savvy and hardcore.

This isn’t going to change.

Valve said themselves that Steam Machines aren’t geared towards people who aren’t PC gamers. They’re very much geared towards people who are already PC gamers. So, they’re not attempting, at least not yet, to compete with consoles.

Even though consoles are always a bit behind in tech, they are the things that popularize aspects of gaming that PCs have been doing for years and bring them into the market for everyone to enjoy.

PC gaming is absolutely important and consoles need PC gaming, but PC gaming needs consoles, as well. Also, even though PC gaming gets a lot of the great games that consoles get, there are also a ton of exclusives they miss out on.

I wasn’t trying to leave PC gaming out, I just think the industry benefits more from a strong console scene.

I totally agree and I can see the same parallels you are drawing here in the article. PC may have had games during the era of the NES and Genesis, but it was consoles that created “gamers” as they exist today. That idea of a computer whose sole function was to play games was what attracted kids, teens and adults in the first place. Yes, as consoles moved into the 16 and 32 bit era PC had evolved it’s games with titles like Ultima and Wing Commander, then moved on to your Fallout and Balder’s Gate and so on, but PC was-and still is-a machine that is intended for a multitude of uses that just happens to include playing video games. It just doesn’t have the same sort of draw to majority of the gaming community.

Right, I think PC’s main gamer draw is almost exclusive to the hardcore gamer community. I think the platform is absolutely marvelous for playing games, as well as customizing them (Though modding games is an entire article by itself and I’m not always fond of the practice.), but it’s a gated community filled with far too many elitists and a barrier of entry that requires consumers to actually know stuff about how to properly use, maintain, and upgrade their machine.

Consoles don’t require this and that’s why I think they’re more important for furthering gaming. They’re not necessarily the best way to play, but they’re what drives the industry forward.

PCs require fiddling and some people love that stuff, but the average consumer doesn’t. Which is why the iPhone dominates over core Android devices (Not cheap throwaways), and why more consumers game on consoles than PCs.